The English title of this book comes from the Talmud (Baba Bathra15a), which called it "Lamentations"(Heb. qinoth). The Hebrew Bible has the title "Ah, how"or "Alas"(Heb. ekah), the first word in the first, second, and fourth chapters. The title in the Septuagint is "Wailings"(Gr. Threnoi).
The position of Lamentations after Jeremiah in the English Bible follows the tradition of the Septuagint and Vulgate versions. They placed it there because of its connection with the destruction of Jerusalem, which Jeremiah recorded, and the Jewish tradition that Jeremiah wrote both books.
In the Hebrew Bible Lamentations occurs between Ruth and Ecclesiastes as the third book of the "Megilloth"or "Scrolls"within the third and last major division of the Old Testament, namely, the "Hagiographa"or "Writings."1
